When I was a kid, the appliance that I revered the most was the blender.  Still today, it’s probably the coolest of small appliances.  I mean, what boy/man does not admire a piece of machinery like a blender?  You can throw anything into a blender and it destroys it to pieces, and then whirls it around like your own private liquid tornado until you have a gooey, indescribable mix.  I can remember all the experiments that I’d make up in my head (my mom wouldn’t let me near a blender) of things I would blend.  Let’s see there was shampoo and play dough, army men and spaghetti-o’s, and of course, eggs and water balloons.  Although highly effective, the blender is not really a complicated machine.  Basically, there are two primary things a blender does:  a) dismantle something by cutting it into smithereens while b) swirling it around and around and around and around.  And of course, the only requirement to blending is having two things to blend, preferably in solid form, if you want the full effect.

You know, isn’t it too bad that there’s not a blender that can take your faith and good story principles and dismantle them both into smithereens then swirl them around and around and around until you had an Oscar or Tony winning script? 

Which brings to mind another good question- what did people do before the blender was invented?  I guess they were not able to blend…no, maybe they had to do it manually, by hand…hmmm… maybe that’s where we should start.  In this essay (that undoubtedly will change the way you think of kitchen aids), I would love to challenge you with the thought that since we do not have a machine to blend our faith with our art, that we need to master the skill of blending it by hand.  That we need to be intentional about dismantling our faith principles and ripping apart story principles to invent a whole new product.

Now, you maybe saying, “Oil and water, Bryan…oil and water.”  To which, I reply, “Mayonnaise!”  See, I know some of you might be skeptical as to whether faith can be blended with art.  I know, I know.  You might think there are not a whole lot of great examples out there to help us believe it can be done.  And your experience might be that the harder you try to put your faith into a work, the more inedible the final mix seems to be.  Perhaps faith and art is like oil and water, they just don’t mix.  And yet, I point to mayonnaise to inspire you onward.  Mayonnaise is actually made of two things that don’t naturally mix- oil and vinegar (don’t ask me how the dressing works).  However, the primary ingredient of mayonnaise is eggs which contains what they call an emulsifier which binds the vinegar to the egg and allows the oil to join in on the party.  Without the emulsifier in the eggs, mayonnaise would not be. 

What in the heck does this have to do with playwriting!!!??? 

In fact, I’m a little embarrassed to be using mayonnaise as my object lesson here since I hate it.  But my goal with this essay is to encourage you to focus on your emulsifier- that thing that binds your faith with your craft in such a way that revolutionizes the taste of art as we know it.  My premise is that in as much as we hold each other accountable to excellence in the craft of writing, we need to hold each other equally accountable to the quality of our faith blending. The day has come for us to be making some mayonnaise, my friend. 

But wait, I can hear the anti-blending Nay Sayers now:  “There’s nothing to blend.  It’s pre-mixed.  If a writer is skilled and is a Christian, it will come out naturally because that is who they are.”  Well, this has NOT been my experience in almost 10 years of script development.  Just because a writer is good at their craft does not ensure they will be good at blending their faith.  It might work for ketchup but not for mayonnaise.  This theory that just by virtue of you being a Christian, Truth and Hope will naturally assimilate in the structure of your script is not true.  I know because it is not true of the Christian life.  Christ does not simply come out because I claim Him.  No, I grow in Him and find that His principles begin to inform life principles.  I enter into a process called sanctification where I daily get out the blender and stir up my life with Jesus Christ.  Hopefully, this process of sanctification is one of creating a new me.  Don’t tell me you haven’t gone round and round with Jesus over some life issue.  No, we frequently blend our faith with financial principles and with marriage principles and with leadership principles, etc.  So I ask- why would Christ not want to grow us in blending our faith with story principles?  Why have we not made the art of blending a focus?  There are several valid reasons why:  a) the subjectivity of faith blending can be frustrating  b) the apparent obstacles/limitations  c) the lack of blending lessons

Since 1995, when I founded Art Within, we have made our primary focus script development from a Christian perspective.  Art Within’ s creative team meets weekly to train and look at opportunities to spur writers on to effectively blend their faith with their art.  We try our best to help writers find an emulsifier that works for them in binding their faith with their craft.  What we’ve found interesting in getting to know both writers and producers is the range of definition given to faith blending.  For example, at Art Within’s 2003 Symposium and Showcase, we conducted daily think tank sessions.  I asked each invited writer to share his or her “IT”; the title of a play or movie that most effectively blended faith and art for them.   The list included Tender Mercies, Magnolia, Bonnie & Clyde, Dead Man Walking, The Birthday Party, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Jesus of Nazareth, Contact, Moulin Rouge, Major Barbara, Wise Blood and the Gaither’s Allelujah, to name a few.  That’s diversity, huh?  Now, I know what some of you are thinking…how could any person in their right mind say that  __(fill in a title from above)__ is blending faith and art?  I mean, give me a break that one is rated-R or that one has a hopeless ending or that one is blasphemous or that one is just plain cheesy.  Such is the nature of blending faith and art.  There is an inherent diversity akin to the diversity within the body of Christ that exists, let alone accounting for aesthetic tastes.  So what do we do with that?  How can we make mayonnaise if we can’t agree on what mayonnaise is?  Can’t we all just get along?!  The key is to unifying us in our condiment making is to agree that mayonnaise requires an egg.  The egg contains the emulsifier…remember?  Now, here is where we can challenge each other, at the level of the emulsifier.  It is here where we can search to understand what the writer views as binding faith to craft in their script.  Who knows, you might find a way to crack the egg for your script too…(sorry, couldn’t resist). 

For example, writer/producer Tom Key shared how Bonnie & Clyde brought him to a real need for salvation.  The depiction of the ultimate end to sin, with both protagonists being blown to pieces at the end was an image etched in Tom’s soul that caused him to take seriously his own sin and his need for a Savior.  The emulsifier that bound faith to craft in this script was utilizing bloody violence in the climax on two characters to whom we grew attached in order to wake us to the reality of their sin.  Now, there’s a practical application of story principles (create lovable bad guys meeting violence in the climax) blending with a faith principles (you reap what you sow or sin ultimately leads to death) that can be leveraged.  I challenge a writer out there who wants to effectively show the ultimate end to sin in their script to look at how Bonnie & Clyde pulled it off.  How many other scripts have you seen that do this same thing?  Oh, they might be violent or they might have two empathetic characters that drive over a cliff at the end, but I can’t think of anything like the climax of Bonnie & Clyde that captures the tragedy of two human beings going down a path where you hate to see them (but you know they need to) reap what they have sown.  

O.k, we’ve established that there is some subjectivity involved in faith blending, yet this subjectivity does not give us a pass in evaluating the quality of the faith blending.  We just need to test the effectiveness of the emulsifier.  The next thing to tackle is the apparent obstacles/limitations found in faith blending.  It has been our experience at Art Within that as a writer approaches faith blending, they pull away because all they see are clichés and obstacles.  What are they going to do- throw a priest in for good measure or force a script to be tied to John 3:16?  It just appears to be so limiting.  In fact, many Christian writers have begun to question whether their faith is the obstacle.  Could our faith be the actual thing keeping us from being good writers?  That’s an honest question that subconsciously paralyzes some Christian writers.  Our faith appears to be a huge stumbling block.  It’s like something happens when you have Jesus, you just can’t seem to put Him aside to write a good story.  Instead, you feel strapped by Him or obligated to Him.  Your vision becomes smaller and smaller as to how you can possibly bind faith to anything.  Forget mayonnaise…it’s too hard to make, let’s just encourage people to eat their food plain.

Well, I happen to believe that having the Holy Spirit in you is an asset.  And I am convinced that this whole obstacle mentality is a huge lie of Satan. 

If the media and arts are the greatest influencers of people’s worldview and if a writer is the person who ultimately takes their worldview and brings it to a script, then where would I focus my attention if I were Satan?  I would make sure that Christian writers aren’t able to take their worldview and effectively blend it with their art.  I would impede their vision.  I would render these writers hopeless by making them feel like their faith is actually the problem and if they’d just set it aside and focus on craft, they could become great storytellers.  So what would be the most frightening thing for Satan to discover- people making mayonnaise!!!  Imagine Satan’s reaction to writers delving deeply into the apparent limitations of faith blending to the point that they actually are creative and turn obstacles into opportunities.

Well, I’m here to proclaim that there are innumerable opportunities out there.  As our creative team studies and trains in story structure, at every turn we say to ourselves, “Here’s another opportunity for a writer to take this story principle and blend it with their faith.”  And even where we’ve run up against boundaries, we realize that God created those, and He is calling us to create inside those lines.  From my viewpoint, we are at the early stages of a huge evolution of the voice of the Christian writer that will result in maturity, authenticity, diversity and cultural impact.  Right now, it is like we are stuck in some Cro-Magnon stage, where our faith appears to be an obstacle.  But I have hope that as we explore this issue of faith blending, new works will emerge that will open the floodgates to the vast amount of ways to express our faith. 

A great example is when one of our creative team members saw Barber Shop.  For those who haven’t seen it, this movie was predominantly African-American in the cast yet the appeal of this movie has surprisingly crossed over to a general audience.  As our creative team member pointed out- “It was all cast design and an authenticity to expose the subculture.”  I ran out and rented it and sure enough, she was right.  It was a lesson for the writer who wants to effectively have Christians in their story but sees nothing but obstacles.  What Barber Shop did was represent every diverse voice in the African-American community.  They even had a white guy who was trying to be black in conflict with the black guy who was viewed as an Uncle Tom.  And they took it one step further- they had a character who actually voiced all the things that white people wish black folks would admit (i.e.- O.J. did it).  I believe it got mainstream appeal versus a film by black people for black people because of the blending of the black experience with an effective cast design and with dialogue that authentically expressed the diversity of thought…two things that could help us in our faith blending.  Imagine a Barber Shop story of sorts with a diverse cast of Christian characters, and what if one of the Christians wasn’t afraid to voice our own skeletons or things that most people wish we would just admit (i.e.- Jesus is not a Republican).  It’s a small example, but one to learn from.   Here’s another one- when the creators of Will and Grace ran up against the obstacle of how do they put an average, everyday gay character in a sitcom, they didn’t run and hide and say it couldn’t be done.  They found their emulsifier in a similar way as Barber Shop.  They created a cast design where the average gay character, Will, is accepted because there is a more flamboyant, stereotypical gay character, Jack, who serves to “normalize” our opinion of Will’s lifestyle.  Add on top of that a very special relationship between Will and his heterosexual roommate, Grace, and you have a recipe for blending the gay lifestyle and the craft of sitcom writing.  Is Will and Grace an example of excellent craft?  The Emmy Awards think so.  Is Will and Grace a better example of binding worldview with craft and turning obstacles into opportunities?  You bet your Kraft (mayonnaise) it is!

I’ll give you another example from a movie listed above- Magnolia.  Now, this movie stands on its own as a great example of faith blending just by virtue of its thematic look at forgiveness.  I want to be clear that I do not believe you have to have a Christian character in a script in order for it to be effective faith blending.  Faith blending can be performed in the manner in which you integrate Hope or Truth thematically in your script.  However, the writers of Magnolia (who were probably not Christians) accomplished both effectively.  First, they creatively encased the story with tales of the “coincidental” (i.e.- providential/supernatural oddities).  Second, they imaginatively introduced the Christian character by just showing a 10 second clip of him kneeling and praying- an action that was underscored by voice over of the character leaving an outgoing message, describing himself in his voicemail box of a love line.  Meanwhile, the other audio track is playing the song “One is the Loneliest Number.”   The introduction results in an empathetic human being who is a Christian.  The writer also chooses the Christian to be a cop.  And the writer utilizes this characterization as a great opportunity to subtlety explore views on good versus evil, violence, ethics and helping people (“making a save”).  Finally, add on top of this, they actually rained down frogs…yes, plague-like frogs that served as a blatant injection of a force outside of these broken characters lives trying to get their attention.  This film is important because a non-Christian figured out how to get around the obstacles, and we need to learn from it.  The faith blending in this film worked on both a thematic level, integrating the Truth about forgiveness, as well as on a level of representing faith in the film through the action and language of the Christian character.  It’s no wonder why I constantly hear Christian artists pointing to it as their “IT.” 

One last example that was a play before it was a movie: Amadeus.  If you took Mozart out of this story, it would be a story told in Sunday School of a man who gets bitter towards God because of his jealousy and coveting of the talents of another man (sound like the story of Saul and David?).  But the writer got away with this because he imaginatively blending this faith story with a historical figure.  It’s amazing…so much to draw inspiration or just plain copy.  In fact, Art Within produced a show with a similar faith blending a few years ago, Tim Slover’s Joyful Noise.  Tim used the same emulsifier; he took the faith principle of God desiring to meet people in the muck and mud of their lives and bound it to the story of Handel writing “The Messiah.”  See, you can make mayonnaise!

Drawing from examples like Magnolia, Amadeus, Barber Shop, and Will and Grace is a way to overcome the last reason that we tend to not focus on faith blending- the lack of blending lessons.  Are we helping writers and challenging them in this area?  Are we finding ways in which scripture actually informs story principles?  I can’t tell you how many times a story principle has pointed me to a scriptural principle or visa versa.  For example, our creative team talks all the time to writers about creating a compelling dilemma for a character.  The nature of choice in the moment of decision for a character is not between right and wrong, but between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods.  I dare you to apply that to Adam and Eve’s decision to eat the apple.  Transform their decision from a right and wrong one to one that is, in that moment and through their eyes, a decision of the greater of two goods or the lesser of two evils.  This will give you a whole new appreciation for Adam and Eve’s choice.  It will give you empathy for their dilemma versus judgment towards their mistakes.  Imagine that…from a story principle, I have gained new insight into a spiritual principle of “judge not less you be judged,” and I’ve exposed the way in which Satan manipulates our thought process in the moment of temptation.  

Let me give another example of a lesson in character arc and faith blending.  Our creative team could work with a writer on making sure their character has a strong character arc.  We could map out the character’s arc and identify that the character, let’s say, goes from bitterness to unconditional love.   But what if we approached the same character arc from the perspective of a blender.  Christ has the power to transform lives, right?  The Hope that I have in my faith is directly proportional to my belief that CHANGE is possible.  This is in stark contrast to the culture’s cynical beliefs that people are made the way they are and cannot change.  Things like divorce are so common in our culture because Hope for change is missing.  There’s no Hope in a power than can transform my spouse; therefore, we are incompatible and I’m out of here.  Now, what if I challenge the Christian writer with the thought that the percentage of change/transformation that the character undergoes will be proportional to the scripts’ ability to communicate Christian Hope?   It’s a whole new ballgame if the writer now sees an opportunity to blend Christian Hope with their script by focusing on that character arc being strong enough to send an audience out of the theater believing that their spouse, their boss or even they could change.  Why not have lessons in building character arcs through the eyes of faith versus just well crafted ones? 

Here’s one last example of a lesson in mythic structure and faith blending.  Most writers have heard of the hero’s myth.  Well, one of our creative team members stumbled across a book that explains a different structure.  It’s called the outlaw myth.  The outlaw myth is basically the story of a person who is sucked into an underworld that is filled with all kinds of crime and sin.  Our hero is entrenched in this world, but has a virtue (i.e.- he’s an honest crook) that makes us like him.  The outlaw myth structure follows this hero as he makes an attempt to escape this underworld and find redemption for himself.  He seeks to be free and achieve balance for himself.  The outlaw hero has to go through a death of sorts with the underworld and often the final showdown is between him and the lord of the underworld.  Does this sound familiar at all?  If ever there was a myth that described my journey to salvation, it is the outlaw myth.  So why don’t we see more outlaw myths as a story structure that communicates the faith principle that we are all slaves to sin and looking for freedom?  Maybe because no one is sharing the outlaw myth to Christian writers and inspiring them to use it.  The opportunity to make mayonnaise exists.  We just need to share with each other these finer points to blending.  Use those films and plays that are your own personal “IT” and cut into pieces the story structure, smash up the faith principles and find the egg binding everything together.  Then pass on the recipe.

Well, hopefully, I didn’t stretch metaphors beyond your ability to gain a little bit of insight into why Art Within exists and how excited we are to work with writers in experimenting with faith blending.  If you are one or happen to run across a good blender, let us know.  And hopefully, one day soon, blenders will be in such huge quantity that the world cannot ignore the mayonnaise that these blenders have been mixing up!